Former Congressional Chief of Staff
Pleads Guilty to Making a False Certification

WASHINGTON – Virginia M. Kontnik, 51, former chief of staff for a U.S. Senator
from Colorado, has pleaded guilty to a charge of making a false certification,
Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher for the Criminal Division announced
today.

Kontnik entered the plea today at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Michael
E. Hegarty of the District of Colorado. According to a one-count criminal
information filed at the federal court in Denver, from 1995 until February
2004, Kontnik was employed as a chief of staff in the U.S. Senate. In that
position, Kontnik managed approximately 40 employees and was responsible for
all personnel decisions. In particular, Kontnik had discretionary authority to
determine staff bonuses and negotiate staff salaries.

Kontnik admitted that, in the fall of 2002, she engineered a plan to receive
$2,000 in unreported income from her personal assistant by triggering larger
than normal salary payments to the personal assistant from which the personal
assistant was directed to pay Kontnik $2,000. Specifically, Kontnik caused the
U.S. Senate to pay her personal assistant more than his normal bi-weekly salary
on two occasions. After taxes and withholdings, the net surplus of the bonuses
to her assistant was approximately $3,800.

In the court documents, Kontnik admitted that she directed the personal
assistant to pay her $2,000 of the surplus in cash. The personal assistant did
so, giving Kontnik an envelope containing 20 $100 bills.

On May 13, 2003, Kontnik prepared, signed and filed her annual financial
disclosure report which required that any gifts of $285 or more from a single
source be disclosed. Knowing the information about gifts she received was
material to both the U.S. Senate and to the public, Kontnik failed to report
the $2,000 cash payment in any manner, certifying that her financial disclosure
report was “true, complete, and correct to the best of [her] knowledge and
belief.”

Under the terms of her plea agreement, Kontnik faces up to a year in jail, a
fine of up to $100,000, a year of supervised release, and $2,000 in restitution
to the U.S. Senate. Sentencing is scheduled for July 6, 2007.

This case is being prosecuted by trial attorney M. Kendall Day of the Public
Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief William M. Welch II, and the Denver
Division of the FBI. The case was investigated by the FBI.